


Snow

by blushies



Category: Free!
Genre: Multi, rinkoru
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 17:10:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2033148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blushies/pseuds/blushies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin's first winter in Japan has him feeling perpetually cold. It doesn't help that he's lost the warmth of his two best friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eatpie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eatpie/gifts).



Rin's first winter in Japan since his return hit him by surprise. In Australia, it never snowed. One day in early second semester he was sitting in class when he glanced out the window.   
“This rain looks strange” Rin thought to himself. Class was dismissed for a break when the teacher lost control of the students. Everyone had ran to press their faces up against the glass and get a peek at the weather. Rin turned his head away from the window and toward his phone. Though deep down he was mystified by the glittery whiteness dropping from the sky, he didn't want to look as stupid as his wide eyed classmates. Rin figured he'd get plenty of time to watch the snow all winter.  
He was right.  
Two weeks after the first snow, Rin and his pile of blankets were inseparable. He left the bed only for class and swim practice. Crawling out from under his protective heap was like stepping into a freezer. Rin's daily dinner routine consisted of heating up a mug of soup in his dorm room's microwave while staring out the window and glaring daggers into the insensitive snow falling from the sky. The other residents had no problem with the temperature. Nitori would regularly lounge around in boxers and a t-shirt, watching movies and doing homework without breaking into shivers. Nitori worried about Rin, he'd make sure to bring him back hot drinks from the canteen, and would occasionally offer to buy Rin some cold medication. Nitori invited Rin out for morning jogs and evening strolls, figuring that if Rin would just get outside he'd get used to the cold.  
Even if Rin could be cured simply by going out to the cold, he'd still rather stay under his blankets. His situation made a great excuse for escaping people. Since the swim tournament in first semester, he and the Iwatobi swim team were brought close together as friends. But after what happened in the fall break, he'd rather they stayed further apart.  
Rin was trying to shrug off the wave of nostalgia for the days before break that had hit him while sitting idly in his bed, when his phone began phone ring. He could hear it buzzing on the table on the opposite side of his room. Rin dreaded the walk between his bed and the phone. The thought of crossing the frozen chasm made him consider not taking the call. Rin knew exactly who was calling and he didn't want to hear from him anyway. But after a few rings, he found himself back in bed with his thumb on the keypad.  
“Hey”  
“Hello!” The chipper voice of Makoto sang back to him. It used to be that Makoto's voice could soothe almost any of Rin's rocky emotions, but hearing it now only made his stomach churn. He heard it almost every other day since he and Haru had begun dating. Rin wasn't the only person whose relationship was strengthened with Haru after the tournament. Other than himself, Makoto figured that Rin knew Haru the best and could ask him anything about his new boyfriend. He'd call to ask for advice on where to take him to dinner, what gifts to get him, if he should worry about something Haru had said and he'd even confess his feelings to Rin about sex with Haru.  
Despite the fact that all of these topics made Rin want to throw down some nasty words and slam the phone shut, he answered the phone every time Makoto called. He couldn't help himself.   
“Damn I'm such a masochist” Rin thought to himself as Makoto began to describe what they did for lunch.   
“We ran into Haru's neighbour on the way home today. You know it's funny but she seemed to think I was you.” Makoto laughed nervously.  
“Yeah that's funny” Rin said.  
“She seemed to think he was dating you” Said Makoto nervously.  
“Do you really think I'd ever date Haru?”  
“Haha yeah.. you're right. I'm not sure what I was thinking. Sorry. It was just a joke, really!” Makoto laughed, trying to ease the tension he brought up.  
“I've got to go help Nitori with his English homework. S'later” Rin began to take his ear off his phone when Makoto said  
“Rin wait!”  
Rin said nothing.  
“The rest of the team hasn't heard from you in a while and they're worried about you. I'm worried about you too. Please join us some time! It would really make us all happy.”  
“Bye.” Rin hung up.  
What did Makoto mean by saying that he'd never date Haru? Rin wondered, upset by Makoto's response. Did he think Haru was too good for him? Did he think Rin didn't care about him? Who gave Makoto the right to decide whether he was spending enough time with the group or not? Rin threw himself face first into his mattress and growled into the fabric.  
The dorm room door swung open and Nitori burst in yelling  
“Sempai! Do you-”  
FWUMP. A pillow landed in his face. Nitori's shoulders sunk dejectedly. He picked the pillow off the ground and returned it to Rin's bed. They spent the rest of the evening in silence.  
\- - -  
The next morning Rin put his phone on silent. It was a Saturday and the team was scheduled to go on a field trip to a nutritional centre at noon. Nitori was always showed up early for school events so Rin found himself alone in his room at 11:16. Rin didn't want to psyche himself up to leave his warm bed and change into his clothes. He didn't want to have to trudge through the snow to get to the bus. He decided he would skip the trip today. It wouldn't be too hard to fake sick.  
As Rin sat up in his bed and hugged his knees, he thought about what he did want. He wanted it to be fall break again. He wanted the streets to be paved with leaves rather than snow and he wanted to find himself at Haru's door. He wanted to sit around for hours with Haru and talk about swimming and life as Haru nodded silently to him or even just leaned on him, listening to Rin's thoughts and ramblings. He wanted to feel like he and Haru were closer than ever and like any day now they would confess how they really felt about each other. He wanted to have never had walked in to Haru's home on the last day of break and found him and Makoto making out in the hallway. He wished he hadn't made an excuse and ran away. He wished he had stood there and said something. He wished Haru had said something-  
A soft knock at the door interrupted his thoughts. Maybe Nitori had forgotten his pass card. Rin was frozen in place. If he answered the door, Nitori would ask him why he wasn't getting ready for the trip. There was another knock. Rin decided he couldn't leave his roommate stranded, he felt a little guilty for last night. The room was colder than ever as Rin shed his pile of blankets and walked towards the door. Every step onto the carpet felt like a frigid slap on his bare feet. Rin opened the door.  
“Haru?” Rin was taken aback by the boy standing in the doorway. He was wearing a weak grey hoodie and running shoes. His hair and shoulders were dusted with snow that was melting under the warmth of the indoors.   
Haru looked down, bowing his head. With a soft thud he leaned head first into Rin's shoulder.  
“What are you doing here?” Rin asked.  
“Missed you.” He mumbled into Rin's shirt. Rin desperately wanted to wrap his arms around Haru and pull him tightly into his chest, to feel Haru's lips against his heart and to inhale his scent. Haru was Makoto's and Rin knew he'd never do that to him. Haru pulled away and looked up at Rin.  
“Pool” Haru said.  
“What?” Haru thrust Rin's swimming jacket from the hook by the door into his chest and began to walk away. Rin pulled the jacket on. Three minutes later he had followed Haru to the academy's empty pool and was sitting beside him with their pant legs pulled up and feet dangling in the water.  
Rin knew that Haru had to get to a pool when he was feeling overwhelmed. Rin wondered what was wrong with his friend.  
“Did you and Makoto fight?” Rin tested, trying to keep the condescension out of his voice.  
Haru simply gave him a look. Right. As if either him or Makoto would be the type to have a fight.  
Haru took a breath that made his chest expand and said   
“Nothing feels right without you.”.  
Rin was dumbfounded.  
“Asshole.” Rin was seething. “you come over to say shit like that but you go back home to your boyfriend. What the hell are you up to?”  
Haru looked like he was about to cry. Rin instantly regretted being so prickly. He never wanted Haru to feel bad, he was just wanted answers. As Haru's eyes glazed over with tears, Rin began to hate himself more and more for what he said.   
“Look up” Rin pointed to the skylight. His shaky voice didn't help the awkward change in subject. “What do you see?”  
The glass ceiling that covered the pool usually worked to let sunlight in and heat the water, but in the winter the curved ceiling was packed with snow in awkward shapes. Like most pools, the old Iwatobi pool had the same roof. Rin remembered that Haru and Rin's guardians were always the last to pick them up from Saturday morning practice. Rin's mother was usually stuck in a meeting and Haru's grandmother had to take public transportation to come get him. In the winter they'd wait for them while laying on the tile of the empty poolside and staring up at the snowy ceiling. Together they'd point out shapes in the piles and make up stories about what they saw. Rin hoped that the familiar memory would help calm Haru down.   
“I see a shark” He said “and a whale a dolphin and they all get along. The end.”  
“Pft I don't see any of those.” Rin went to check Haru's face to see which direction he was looking for those shapes and saw that he was gazing at straight at him. Oh.  
“Haru that's not how it works.” Rin couldn't look into his eyes anymore. He stared hard at the ground beside him. Rin didn't want to be someone Haru could turn to when he was in the right mood. He didn't want to watch Haru leave him over and over again for Makoto. Haru put his hand on Rin's balled fist.  
A door burst open behind them. Makoto stood in the doorway staring at Haru and Rin sitting together. Rin felt a fleeting rush of vengeful satisfaction in watching Makoto walk in on them just like he had done. But Rin noticed Makoto's brows tilt up and the rest of his face drop. Rin couldn't stand this.  
Makoto didn't deserve this. He had done so much to try to cheer Rin up. He never wanted cause anyone pain. He just wanted to stop feeling hurt. A pang of emotion struck his chest as he realized how much he wanted to see Makoto happy. He realized that he had been answering the phone all this time, not because of Haru, but purely because he needed Makoto in his life. A rush of warmth filled Rin's body.  
Rin stood up from the poolside and walked to the door. Makoto still stood there in shock. He was clutching his coat closed with one hand and was holding an extra pair of mittens in the other. Rin closed his hand over the one clutching the gloves and wrapped his other arm around Makoto's neck. He pushed his face onto Makoto's. Makoto's shoulders slumped and he gave into the kiss. Rin felt warmth radiating in his own face. He pulled away and another pair of lips came crashing into Makoto's face. Rin still had his arm wrapped around Makoto's shoulders, he had let go of his hand and wrapped an arm around Haru's waist. He gently kissed Haru's shoulder as he clung to Makoto's jacket. Snow whipped at their bodies as they stood clutching each other in the open doorway. Rin didn't feel a single snowflake in the warmth of the huddle.  
When Haru pulled away from the kiss, Makoto struggled to find the appropriate thing to say. Rin jumped in.  
“When I saw you two together, I thought I had lost something. I thought I lost you two forever. Haru came to me today and made me realize that I was really feeling like I was missing out. Life wouldn't be the same without both of you in it. Please let me in.”  
Makoto looked slightly flustered, but he smiled and kissed Rin on the forehead. He pulled them all into his chest, their faces buried in each others' hair.   
A van pulled into the lot behind them.  
“There's something I need to do” Rin realized. He slid out from under the arms that were reluctant to let him go. He felt a warmth radiating from his cheeks. He gave Haru a final kiss while squeezing Makoto's hand.  
“We'll be together again later” Rin said. He turned away quickly, embarrassed by how cheesy it sounded. Everything he thought and said was much too sweet and he couldn't stop himself from feeling any of it.  
\- - -  
In the parking lot, Rin stood a few meters from the van, careful not to attract the attention of any teachers or team captains who might want to know why he'd skipped the trip. He spotted the head of silver hair quickly. Nitori looked rattled as he lugged several buckets of heavy protein supplement containers away from the bus. He was so preoccupied with being in a huff that he almost passed by Rin entirely. Rin reached out a hand and ruffled Nitori's hair.   
“Sempai!” Nitori looked surprised and unsure whether or not Rin was being friendly.   
“Sup squirt?” Rin tried to sound kind without giving up too much of his passive demeanour.  
Nitori's cheeks reddened. Rin had never seen him angry before. The kid had a habit of bottling his negativity up, and Rin was surprised to see that it was finally bubbling out.  
“I'm going to try some of that Peppermint hot chocolate you've been talking about. Wanna come along?” Rin asked. The redness instantly dissipated from Nitori's face. “It's good right?”   
“Yes!” Nitori's eyes lit up “It's the absolute best!”  
“Better be.” Rin said as he picked up a few buckets to lighten his friend's load.  
“Aren't you cold?” Nitori had remarked that Rin was only wearing a swimming jacket and sweatpants.  
“Nah.” Rin said. He threw a glance back toward the pool door where Haru and Makoto saw him off with a small wave “I'm warm enough.”


End file.
